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AnonymousHero

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- January 17, 2019 - 00:40

This IS the commercial from years ago. GEICO is bringing back all of their old spots for a KTel-type “Best of GEICO”-campaign. You’ll see the cavemen popping up again, as well as some of the first Gecko spots.

Actually Razors and shaving supplies tend to be the one product that men consistently select and purchase themselves. It’s something you would imagine the executive staff of the worlds largest men’s razor maker to be aware of. But based on the comments from Gillette and P&G’s C Suite, nope! They have no idea who their customers are. Morons!

The use of the term “toxic masculinity” in the ad was a flat out mistake. While only mentioned quickly and briefly, the use of this term, which many men associate with a one-sided critique and stereotype of an entire gender. Regardless of how much some without marketing backgrounds would like to believe that companies taking political stances on is okay, alienating a substantial proportion of the target audience is never a good thing. Michael Jordan’s statement that he did not want to engage in political commentary because “Republicans buy shoes too,”remains wise thinking. Regardless of which political party or group may be alienated, it is simply bad marketing practice to offend significant numbers of your own consumers."

"Outside of the ad itself, you are doing real shit, partnering with Building a Better Man Project and the Boys and Girls Club of America, as well as donating $3 million to U.S. charities that support men and men's issues. And you hired Kim Gehrig to direct the ad; she's been at the forefront of Free the Bid, a program that advocates for more female directors in the ad business. Adding to that, you've made a commitment that "effective immediately, Gillette will review all public-facing content against a set of defined standards meant to ensure we fully reflect the ideals of Respect, Accountability and Role Modeling in the ads we run, the images we publish to social media, the words we choose, and more." This is some real shit, people."

"Gillette opted to use Kim Gehrig, one of a new generation of directors showcased by the Free the Bid campaign, which attempts to hire more female directors into advertising. Again, with such paltry female representation across creative departments, Free the Bid is a noble and important venture. But Gehrig stumbles badly here.

Rather than a work of inspiration and aspiration she delivers a short film that feels vindictive and accusatory. We are not being shown the better path, we are being told we are all on the wrong one and must change course immediately. Men are to blame. You, yes you. It’s a poor way to sell razors. Hell, it’s a poor way to sell anything.

And the proof of that poverty is in the social media pudding. Since the ad was posted yesterday (14 January) on Gillette’s YouTube channel it has received more than two million views. Thus far the like to dislike ratio is running 10 to one against the campaign. More worryingly, the sheer number of dislikes – one in every 10 people who have seen the ad went to the trouble of clicking the thumbs-down button at the time of writing – suggests a vehement dislike unusual for such a big brand with this kind of major campaign."

Both Harry's and in a way Dollar Shave club have entered similar strategic thoughts though. Harry's had a Father's day tweet a couple of years ago redefining masculinity, crossing out words like "stoic" and "take it like a man" and "be the bread winner."